The Truth About Forever
by dracoismyboyfriendguys
Summary: "You are Rose Weasley, you are a strong indepedent woman and you don't need no man." "You're right. I am Rose Weasley and as a strong, independent woman, I am making the executive decision to lie in my bed and cry." Rose Weasley's life is about to get a lot more complicated. Scorpius/Rose
1. One: An Introduction of Sorts

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you were kicked out of your house and forced to live on the streets? Yeah, me too. I'd definitely go straight to a muggle street. See I can't sing or dance, at least not when I'm sober, but I've always liked the way that muggles love to see magic and that's something I definitely can do. I'd probably become a world famous magician. That or I'd get locked up in some kind of science laboratory and have medical experiments conducted on me and then I'd either have to confess to being a witch and expose our entire world to the general public or I'd be locked up in some kind of mental institution.

Or I guess I could just go and live with Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny.

That's what's going on in my head right now; sitting in Flitwick's office while I wait for my life to end in a big explosion (aka Mum exploding). See I'm (usually) a good girl; I'm their little Rosie. I don't pull stunts like this one and I don't get in trouble.

However, as the old phrase goes, desperate times call for desperate measures.

And when Malfoys are involved, desperate is definitely the right word to use.

You see, if there's just one thing that I've learned from Dad, apart from how to burp the alphabet, it's that Weasley VS Malfoy is a never ending showdown that we are currently leading. So letting my (cough traitor cough) cousin and Malfoy get away with charming all the Gryffindor brooms to buck us off whenever we get ten feet above the ground (right before I match against the Slytherins, I may add). Putting 'Weasley's Wizard Wheezes Fast-Action Laxatives' in their evening pumpkin juice didn't really seem too drastic to me.

"You know," that pompous voice pipes up from the chair beside me. "If either of our parents kill me on sight, I hope you carry the burden of my death till the end of your days."

"Your parents?!" I say, "You're worried! I think I'm the one who's allowed to be worried, Malfoy! My mum will keep me locked in my bedroom for twelve years or she'll force me out onto the streets and you don't even want to know what that will lead to…"

"Slightly selfish, don't you think," he smirks.

"Not at all, especially as you're the reason we're so deep in shit."

"Do my ears deceive me or did I just hear little Rosie Weasley say a naughty word?"

"Oh fuck off, Malfoy."

And my parents choose that exact moment to appear in the green flames of the grand fireplace.

"Rose Weasley!" Mum gasps.

"Hi, Mum" I say meekly, ignoring Malfoy's stifled sniggers.

"What the hell is going on, Rosie?" Dad asks, he looks bewildered, but strangely not too angry.

"It was nothing really, just a little joke," I say.

'You made us shit ourselves in front of the entire school,' Malfoy whines. I roll my eyes while Mum inhales sharply and Dad clenches his fists. Picture perfect family right?

Before we start Wizarding War Three in the centre of Hogwarts, Flitwick bustles in. To be honest, he doesn't look that surprised at the scene before him.

"Mr and Mrs Malfoy will be along in just a couple of minutes," he informs us. Brilliant, I'm sure this is just going to be one big ol' party.

The flames in the grate burn green once more and Mr and Mrs Malfoy appear, shaking the dust from their robes. Mr Malfoy has always reminded me of a rat, or a ferret; some kind of diseased rodent while Mrs Malfoy has a much fuller face that always looks far too kind to be alongside Draco Malfoy's.

"What have you done now, Scorpius?" spits Malfoy, ignoring Flitwick who stands up to greet them.

"Nothing," Malfoy (as in Scorpius) replies blankly.

"Not entirely true, Mr Malfoy," Flitwick says, having retaken his seat. "Scorpius here, along with the rest of the Slytherin Quidditch team, has been caught charming the Gryffindor team's brooms to buck them off which, fortunately, did not cause any serious harm but may have proven fatal in the wrong circumstances."

The sneer disappears from Draco Malfoy's face for a split second replaced by what I can only assume is a proud smile. It looks like the face my cousin James makes when he does a "good" fart.

"Oh, Scorpius," Mrs Malfoy says shaking her head at her son.

Flitwick then goes on to explain to both of us how irresponsible and dangerous our actions were. Unless the stench of the Slytherin's team shit gassed the school (which isn't that unlikely) I really don't see how we were being all that dangerous. Apparently Mum doesn't agree, she nods furiously at everything Flitwick says and she really reminds me of those bobble-head dolls you buy as souvenirs. However, she hasn't exploded yet (I think she's probably saving that one till she gets me alone). But hey, when your mother doesn't explode all over the headmaster's office, can you really say that you have too much to complain about.

Flitwick tells us that we'll both be serving detention every Saturday morning from now until Christmas. Together.

"What?" Malfoy splutters, he looks horrified and though I'm pissed off myself, it amuses me to see that my company disgusts him that much.

"Yes, Mr Malfoy. You and Miss Weasley will be working in the Greenhouses. Maybe it will allow you to put your differences aside and settle this pathetic squabble." Both Dad and Draco Malfoy look thoroughly put out that Flitwick has just referred to the 'Weasley-Malfoy Feud' as a 'pathetic squabble' but Mum and Mrs Malfoy are both nodding seriously.

Flitwick thanks our parents for coming in and Dad gives me a quick wink before stepping into the fireplace. Mum, on the other hand, gives me one her 'don't you think I'm letting you get away with this one Rose Weasley' looks while she follows him.

"James Sirius Potter,I swear to Merlin I am going to make you regret the day you were born," I say when I see James relaxing on one of the armchairs in the Gryffindor common room.

"Hey, Rosie! How was Flit-" he doesn't get finish. It's hard to talk when you have a pretty tall sixteen year old lying on top of pummelling any bit of you she can get her hands on.

"Thanks…to…you," I say between punches. "I'm going to be spending my Saturday mornings until Christmas shovelling shit with Malfoy."

"Aw sorry, Rosie," he says, the mocking grin on his face tells me he isn't sorry at all. "You need to learn to run faster."

He's still smiling and I can't help but grin back at him even if he did abandon me surrounded by the empty packs of laxatives.

"Was Al there?" James asks.

"Nope," I reply. "Must be in your genes"

"Oh." He sounds almost disappointed. Epitome of a great brother right there that James Potter.

"Rose! Rose are you okay?" I turn to see Tori, my best friend. "I heard from a fourth year that you and Malfoy were in with Flitwick."

I don't even want to know why she was gossiping about me and Malfoy with a fourth year but I nod, "Yeah it's fine. After James here-" cue glare that could match my mother's, "-left me with the evidence Longbottom sent me up there. Long story short my head will be served with Christmas dinner on a platter when I get home and Malfoy and I are being sold into slavery every Saturday."

"You want me to jinx Flitwick for you?" Tori says, I laugh but she's probably serious. It's where Tori and I differ. I'll just call someone anything upwards from 'dirty hippogriff' under my breath (unless it's James Potter of course) whereas Tori is much more likely to smile sweetly then hex you the minute your back's turned. Charming girl, really.

James has retaken his seat and re-fluffed his hair. Why none of the Potter men are never content with having hair that actually lies flat on their head is totally beyond me. He's now returned to rating the arses of everyone who climbs out the portrait hole with another seventh year Ed Roden. I correct myself, everything that James Potter does is totally beyond on me.


	2. Two: Voldemort Take Notes

It's the time of year when all the animals in the grounds hurry and scurry everywhere they go while the movements of humans become slower, steadier, lazier. Outside, the birds sing and animals gather food for the winter months ahead and inside it's silent apart from the steady sound of muffled snoring until-

"Morning ladies!" someone shouts and we all jerk awake. For a second I have no idea where I am but when I finally orientate myself I find myself face-to-face with a slightly dishevelled, half-naked, rather hairy James Potter.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" I hiss sitting up in my bed and trying to find my watch.

"Come on, Rosie! Time for Quidditch practice," he grins.

"Since when do we practice at," I squint at my watch face through the hazy light, "six-fifteen on a Saturday morning?"

"Since," he says grabbing my arm and pulling me from my bed. "It became vital for us to beat Slytherin next month!"

"Can't we just play later?" I groan, now standing in just my Chudley Cannons pyjamas in the middle of the dormitory.

"What'sappening?" Cara, another sixth year (as well as being one of my best friends), mumbles.

All of the girls in my dorm are now awake and looking thoroughly confused as to why an ape-like teenage boy is scrambling through my trunk, manically looking for my Quidditch robes. That is, all except Tori who is still snoring softly in her four-poster; I swear, bloody Lord Voldemort could come into our room and that girl wouldn't even stir.

"Oh hi, James," giggles Hope Stanley with a wink at him. Out of the four girls who I share this room with, she's the only one I can't stand. If it's alive, male and looks vaguely attractive, she'll do everything in her power to shag it. Don't get me wrong; I'm all for living your life how you like but giggling like a five year old at six-fifteen at James Potter who is currently picking the fluff out of his belly button.

"Have you got practice now, James?" she giggles again. Clearly, all roommates become invisible when there's a Neanderthal-esque boy in your dorm.

"Eh yeah," James says, even he seems confused that Hope is twiddling her hair around her finger and giving him a smile that just screams three year old looking at a cute puppy; and believe me, James Potter thinks that any girl who isn't related to him should be looking at him at any time.

"Maybe I'll go for a jog around the pitch," Hope says.

James has apparently lost any interest he had in her and is now thrusting my red and gold robes and me and ushering towards the adjoining bathroom.

After getting over the initial shock of seeing myself looking like that hag who seems to spend her entire life in the Hog's Head, I change quickly and splash some water on my face in a vague attempt to wake myself up. It doesn't work.

When I return to the dormitory, I see that Erin (the fifth girl who I share the room with) and Cara have both re-drawn the heavy, red curtains around their beds. However Hope has dressed in her exercise clothes which look more Californian summer, beach jog-style than frosty Scottish October morning to me. But hey, as Hope regularly reminds me, what do I know about fashion?

"You ready to head down to the pitch then?" I ask James as I grab my water bottle and a bar of Honeydukes' chocolate for when we've finished playing.

James looks puzzled, "No," he says shaking his head. "I need you to go and wake up the other girls." He says it as though it's blindingly obvious and that it's me who's talking nonsense.

"What?" I ask. "Why couldn't you do it?"

"I don't want to go into the girl's dormitories!"

"James where the fuck do you think you are right now?" I say exasperatedly.

"Yeah but that's different! You're my _cousin_."

Oh yes, silly me. Of course the fact that I share this room with four other girls, one of whom is now bending over doing some kind of stretch that's main purpose is just to shove her butt into James' face, doesn't mean anything because I'm James' cousin.

"Come on then," I sigh, dragging James away from ogling Hope. "How did you even get up here?"

We begin to climb down the spiral staircase to the younger girls' dormitories.

"Magic," James grins, he winks and slides down on the banister to the common room below.

Carefully I knock on the fifth year room and tell the two Gryffindor beaters, Chloe Robins and Alison Coote that they need to get up. After fifteen minutes they both appear bleary-eyed and somewhat pissed off in the common room where James, Alec Spinnet , Theo Vane, Gavin Abercrombie and I are waiting.

Even though I know for a fact that Alec Spinnet was up till at least midnight last night (I saw all too much of him and his girlfriend, Katie Stimpson, snogging in the middle of the common room) all of the boys seem to be far more awake than any of us.

I wonder which potion James gave them.

* * *

Two hours, four bludgers to the back and approximately ten buckets of sweat later, I sit down on the bench in the Gryffindor changing rooms and try to catch my breath.

"Decent practice, team," James barks at us. Ever since he became captain last year, he's adopted a new voice that he uses whenever he's addressing the team.

Theo groans audibly and rolls his eyes as we all chant, "Thanks, Captain."

That's the other thing James introduced. It's practically a dictatorship- Voldemort take notes.

"But we need to keep working if we're going to beat Slytherin and my darling brother," he says. We all nod again and there are some murmured comments of support. "I think we should all meet up later, in The Three Broomsticks; I want to discuss some new game plans with you. "

"Eh no can do, sorry," I say coldly. James may have forgotten about my detention but I certainly haven't. "I have detention," I check my watch, "In an hour."

"Oh, right," James says, the whole team look a little guilty.

"We'll bring you back a Butterbeer!" Chloe says earnestly and they all nod their heads.

"It's fine," I say. "I need to go and get ready now, though."

I pick up my things and leave the room. It's one of those situations when you know that everyone is waiting to talk about you. I can practically hear Chloe and Alison saying how bad they feel and James just laughing it off, saying how this means I'll have the chance to find out enemy tactics from Malfoy. Wow, even in my imagination James is a bit of a prick.

When I reach the dormitory, Tori and Cara are sitting on my bed waiting for me.

"Finally!" Cara cries and Tori rolls her eyes. "I'm honestly about to die of starvation."

"You're hungry? Really? I would never have guessed, I mean it's not like that all you've been saying for the past half an hour," Tori says through gritted teeth then looks at me and mouths, 'I swear to god.'

I laugh and allow Cara to take me by the hand and pull me out of the dormitory. How that girl is not obese I will never know. Cara's life consists of three main activities: eating, complaining about being hungry and looking like a supermodel. I'm not even exaggerating, that girl seriously gives Kate Moss a run for her money. Blonde hair, big green eyes, cheekbones so sharp they could kill a man-you get the picture.

Breakfast is in full swing by the time we arrive, Hope is feeding her boyfriend (I don't know his name, I don't bother to try and learn them anymore, she moves too fast for me to keep up) from her fork, kissing him between each mouthful and giggling, always giggling. Cara sits down and immediately begins to pile her plate with scrambled egg and toast.

"So," she asks spewing egg all over the table which earns her a disgusted look from Hope, which she returns with a middle finger. "Where are we going today?"

"Detention," I sigh.

"Oh, right yeah sorry," Cara says, awkwardly stirring her eggs. Oh, did I forget to mention that it was Cara who gave James and I the idea of using laxatives on the Slytherins? She's been extra nice to me for the past few days because she's feeling guilty and even though it wasn't her fault we got caught I'm not exactly about to tell her to stop carrying my books and giving me food am I?

"We'll get you something from Honeydukes'," she smiles.

"Do we have to?" Tori laughs, so I hit her with my copy of the Daily Prophet that was just dropped in front of me. I open it up and the headline is something about Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny's 'divorce', and by 'divorce' I mean the bullshit that the papers have decided to print because there's no actual news at the moment.

"I need to get going," I say after shovelling down a quick few mouthfuls of breakfast.

"Have fun on your date with Malfoy," Tori winks.

"Oh haha how funny," I say sarcastically and ignoring her and Cara's winks and catcalls, I begin the plod down to the greenhouses.

*

"Alright, Weasley?" Malfoy greets me as I arrive there. He's leaning with one foot and his back against the translucent glass with a smirk on his face. I'm not quite sure what he's finding so funny, I can't imagine that spending his morning re-potting squealing mandrakes is his idea of fun, but you know, I don't like to judge what others get up to outside the classroom.

"Why are you so happy?" I ask suspiciously.

"Come on, Weasley!" he says. "Look around you, the birds are singing, the sun is shining…."

I look up at the opaque grey sky, which looks like it is about to let the heavens open any minute. I raise an eyebrow at him.

"Okay maybe not but I'm just trying to spread some positivity…" he trails off again when I let out a loud laugh. "What?" he asks defensively.

"Well, Malfoy, you're hardly the spring's chirpiest chick, are you?"

He shrugs, "Maybe not but I sure do know how to make the chicks chirp, if you know what I mean."

"Malfoy," I go to clap him round the head for that, plus the dirty wink he just gave me but he's stronger than me and holds my arm tight.

"Come on, Weasley," he says again. "You know you love me really?"

"No, Malfoy," I say wrenching my arm from his grasp, "_You _know you love you really."

Before Malfoy can retaliate, Longbottom comes out of the greenhouses, "Right then, are you two ready?"

He gives me a half-smile and I can tell he feels a bit awkward about this- I've never had detention before with him before and, as he is a family friend, I'm hoping that it won't be too bad. He shows us where the mandrakes are and gives us each a pair of earmuffs (I take the brown pair, leaving Malfoy with the pink, fluffy ones).

"I'll be back at twelve to see how you're getting on," Longbottom says, he still seems very apologetic- that'll be why he's never usually in charge of punishment.

We begin to prepare the new pots for the mandrakes, which are now reaching the childlike stage of growth so they are clingy and selfish and therefore, much to my annoyance, Malfoy and I are forced to work together to forcibly pull the mandrakes from their old pots and settle them into the new ones. Somehow I have a feeling that this isn't coincidental; Longbottom is forever trying to settle inter-house disputes.

Having worked solidly for two hours, Longbottom comes in and tells us that we have an hour to head back up to the castle for lunch. Malfoy and I plod back up the hill in silence until we reach the entrance hall, which is completely empty.

"You coming to eat then, Weasley?" Malfoy asks, smirking at me. Seriously, does he have another facial expression?

"Eh, I thought I'd just go and find someone…" I trail off and I see he's not buying it.

"There is literally no one else in this entire school to eat with," he says just as a gaggle of second year girls run screaming through the hall. "Unless you would rather go hang out with a bunch of eleven year olds…"

I sigh, "Fine." Malfoy grins at me and I follow him through into the Great Hall.

He sits down at the far end of the Slytherin table, a fair distance from the younger students scattered down the table. I've never actually sat at the Slytherin table; usually on people's birthdays, celebrations, that kind of thing, we all move and sit at that person's house's table but James always refuses to go to Slytherin on Al's birthday and makes him move to Gryffindor.

I can practically smell the evil as I sit down.

"Alright, Weasley?" Malfoy says. "You look scared."

I shrug, "What if Voldemort or like Bellatrix Lestrange sat here?"

Malfoy laughs, "Yeah I heard if you sit here too long, the evil seeps into your bloodstream through the seat." He pauses while he fills his plate with pasta. "Also, Bellatrix Lestrange was my great-aunt."

I'd forgotten that. "She tortured my mum," I say.

"Yeah, from what I've heard, she seems like a bit of a bitch." We eat in silence for a while, I can feel Malfoy staring at me, his eyes boring into me as I eat, pretending not to notice him.

"I'm not my family, you know," he eventually says.

It catches me off guard, "What?"

"You think I'm like them, I can promise you I'm not."

I have no idea what to say, what the hell am I supposed to say?

"Right."

Eloquent, Rose.

"You're allowed to hate me," he says, his signature smirk on his face. "But at least get to know me first."

Although I hate to admit it, I guess he's right. I've always hated Malfoy, just because he's Malfoy.

"I'm sure you'd love me."

And there's always the small fact that he's a conceited prick.

* * *

"So, how was your date with Malfoy?" Cara asks the second she bursts into the dormitory. I'm lying on my bed: half doing my charms essay and half reading the new issue of Witch Weekly.

I glare at her, "Say that one more time and I'll hex you into oblivion."

"Aw look she's getting all defensive," Tori laugh as she flops down onto my bed.

"You could be like Romeo and Juliet," Cara sighs as she joins Tori on my bed. Despite what many people think about Cara, she's a hopeless romantic; deep down that girl believes that everyone is inherently loveable, that you just need the right person. At least, that's what she said when she was very drunk and had just been dumped by none other than my darling cousin James.

"Who or what the fuck is a Romeo and Juliet?" Tori snorts. She's from a fully wizarding family from Italy and so Cara, who's a muggleborn herself, and I often find ourselves explaining things to her.

"Oh it's beautiful," Cara gushes. "You're going to love this." Cara must be friends with a completely different girl from me, my Tori is a sarcastic cynic who isn't exactly who Shakespeare was picturing when he wrote the balcony scene. Tori confirms this by raising an eyebrow and giving Cara a disbelieving look. Cara, apparently oblivious to this, launches into the tale of the star-crossed lovers.

"…and then Juliet has to defy her family and go and find Romeo," she finishes, conveniently forgetting to include the last section of the play in her summary.

"That's just before they top themselves in a tomb," I tell Tori who promptly snorts which earns her a dirty glare from Cara.

"I knew it couldn't have a happy ending, anyone who gets married after what, ten hours of knowing the guy frankly deserves what they get," Tori says. "Like Kim Kardashian." I knew we shouldn't have got her into Keeping Up.

Before Cara can leap to the defence of two fictional characters, my stomach rumbles loudly. "Hungry?" Tori laughs.

We head to the Great Hall to have dinner; the enchanted ceiling is a beautiful pink-purple and the faintest traces of bright stars are beginning to shine through the dusk sky. The Hall is bustling, with most of the school lively yet hungry due to the Hogsmede trip.

Theo Vane and Charlie Derren, two Gryffindor boys in our year, beckon us over to sit by them. As I shovel chicken pie onto my plate, I turn to Theo and ask, "Was James awful in Hogsmede?"

He gives me a look that just screams 'well-duh'. "Chloe and Alison bought you a Butterbeer," he smiles.

"Charlie, do you believe in true love?" Cara asks abruptly.

Charlie turns bright red and chokes on his pumpkin juice; it's a well-known fact that he has had a crush on Cara since second year. "I…umm…I-I don't know," he finally stutters after Theo has smacked him on the back a few times to stop his coughing fit.

"Do you, Rose?" she questions again, apparently unperturbed by Charlie's reaction.

"That depends," I say carefully, "I think my parents are truly in love, I think both sets of my grandparents are truly in love. I don't think, however, that everyone is going to experience true love."

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?" a screech echoes through the hall and a wave of silence descends over the hall, it's heavy and thick, almost tangible.

I, copying with everyone else in the room, crane my neck to get a better look at what's happening at the other end of the Gryffindor table.

"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY BOYFRIEND YOU FUCKING FAGGOT!" I turn my head just enough to get a glimpse of the speaker. It's Katie Stimpson, she's standing directly in front of Alec Spinnet, as though she's shielding him. I'm practically standing up now, desperately trying to see who's she's shouting at. Who can blame me, it's not too often that we get a bit of drama going down right in the middle of the Great Hall. But I have to say, my heart goes out to whoever the poor sod is.

"I-I-I wasn't, I'm s-sorry," a quieter voice answers, but it's clearly audible through the silent hall.

"What the hell were you doing?" Katie snarls.

"Katie, stop," Alec steps around her and tries to push her back.

"No," she says, stepping forwards again. "I'm going to fucking sort him out."

Whispers are starting to sweep through the hall but I'm still trying to get a look at whoever it is.

She lunges forward as if to attack before Alec grasps her arm and turns her around to face him. He says something to her that's indistinguishable from here.

"I think you should go now," Alec says, his face a mixture of flushed embarrassment and anger.

The boy turns and begins to make his way down the gap between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables. The whispers are even louder now and my heart sinks to the bottom of my stomach.

As I watch my little brother run from the hall.

* * *

**A/N- Thanks so much for all the reads and the reviews on the last chapter, I know this one was a bit filler-ish but I needed to introduce more characters and there's a bit of a cliffhanger for you at the end. Please remember to leave a review letting me know what you think :)**

-Alice x


	3. Three: Pre-Natal Drug Use

Do you ever have those moments where everything around you is blocked out and your brain decides to take you back to a forgotten memory?

Maybe it's just me…

It was late August and, for once, it had been a hot, dry summer. Our feet kicked up the red-brown dust as we ran in the Potter's back garden. James had just turned eight and, much to my dismay, there were still two long weeks until my own September birthday. We'd spent the entirety of summer playing our new game where I was the princess locked in the evil hag's tower (the Potter's tree-house), James was my dashing prince come to rescue me and Al was the old hag. He was willing to play any part in our games. Since our parents had told us to let Hugo and Lily play too, we christened them the innocent peasants who would get slaughtered either by Al or James depending on how the storyline went that day.

This particular time, James had saved me within the first twenty minutes and so Al had taken the peasants captive in the tower. We were all truly excited, this wasn't one of our more common scenarios. Although Dad and Uncle Harry were officially monitoring our play, they were far more interested in discussing whom the Chudley Cannons had appointed their new manager. James and I were huddled together under the tree, just out of Al's eyesight, comparing strategies on how we were going to recover the captured peasants.

For some reason Merlin only knows, we decided that the best solution would be to have our five-year-old siblings jump from the fifteen foot high tree.

"You'll be fine!" James called up to them. "Princess Rosie and I will catch you."

"We promise," I'd reiterated.

I still remember their scared faces peering down at us; eventually Hugo had pushed Hugo aside and stood with his toes just off the edge of the wooden ledge.

Maybe if Al hadn't tried to stop him as he stood there, he wouldn't have lost his balance.

Maybe if Lily hadn't screamed as he began to fall he wouldn't have turned and smacked his chin off the tree-house floor.

Maybe if Dad and Uncle Harry hadn't started panicking and shouting as Hugo plummeted to the ground, James and I wouldn't have lost our concentration.

Maybe if we had never been so stupid, he wouldn't have fallen through our arms and hit the ground in a crumpled mess.

Dad pushed James and I roughly aside and scooped up Hugo's broken body. Lily and Al both climbed down the rope ladder and watched, alongside James and I, as Dad told Harry to call Mum and explain what had happened and that he was taking Hugo to Mungo's.

I wasn't allowed to visit him while he was in hospital. I stayed at the Potter's for the rest of the day but none of us had any desire to play anymore. I just couldn't keep the image of how disjointed and broken Hugo had looked out of my mind. A few hours later, Mum came to take me home. She told me he was going to be okay but Dad had to stay at the hospital with him overnight. I told her I was sorry and she said that she knew we hadn't meant to, but we needed to think more before we did things.

He was fine in the end, of course. A broken collarbone, a fractured leg and a sprained wrist were all fixed within a week. We were always too scared to play in the tree-house after that. That was the first time that I ever saw Hugo properly hurt. Knowing that I'd caused it made it so much worse.

And that's what my mind goes back to right then, as Hugo runs from the Great Hall. The same sick feeling courses through me and I bite down hard on my lip to try and regain some feeling in my numb body. It takes a few seconds before the whispers re-start, harsher and thicker than before. They seem to stab into my skin like pricking knives and make the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

I'm jolted back to reality as a warm hand clasps my own and begins to drag me from the room. My eyes are swimming with tears obscuring my vision so I blink hard to expel them. It's then I can finally make out who's still pulling me up the stairs and along the corridor.

It's James. His messy, jet-black hair flapping lazily against his head as his long strides lead me forwards. But he looks like I feel, sick and worried, but mainly just confused

"Where are we going?" I gasp, trying to keep the choking sobs from rising up in my throat.

My brother, my little Hugh has just been humiliated in front of the entire school because…

And that's what I was trying to make sense of.

She'd called him faggot. I'm not stupid, I know what she's insinuating.

"Just come on," James tells me. "Did he tell you? That he's you know…?"

"What?" I come to a stop.

"Well you know, that he's _gay_?" James stops beside me, leaning on the corridor wall.

"Of course bloody not," I say. "Besides, he might not be, it might just be that stupid bitch making things I up; I swear to God when I get my hands on her."

While, I'm thinking about the various spells I would do, James furrows his brow and turns me to directly face him.

"Rosie come on, I thought you were all for equality and no prejudices," he says.

"I am," I tell him quickly. "I just, you know, never thought it would be…"

"Your own brother," a voice from behind us says. My heart leaps but when I turn I don't see Hugo, I see Theo.

Don't get me wrong, I love that boy as much as I love some of my cousins but right now, I just need to get to my little brother.

I start to tell him this, but he cuts me off, "Look, I was just thinking maybe I could talk to Hugo?"

"I don't know, Thee. I feel like I just need to be there for him right now. We have no idea how this is going to affect his life. What about the people who won't accept him, what if my parents don't accept him. And then there's all the extended family, some of them are bound to have a problem with it, with him. My money would be on Uncle Percy but then again, Nana and Grandad are rather conservative. And then there's the fact that he'll never get the chance to have the traditional family." I'm rambling, I'm spouting bullshit but that's what I do when I'm nervous. "I mean how can any of us know what going through his mind right now? It's-"

"Rose _I'm _gay," Theo says.

Well that shut me up.

"What?" I splutter. And then before I know what I'm doing I smack him round the head.

"Um, ow?"

"Why didn't you tell me? You know I like to know things…"

"Yes, Rosie, we all know how intolerably nosey you are, but your little brother is currently alone in that cupboard," James says, pointing to a supplies cupboard a little way down the corridor.

"How the heck do you know that?" I ask. I guess I am a little nosey, or as I like to put it, inquisitive. "Are you like telepathic or something?"

James looks thoroughly perplexed, "What's that?"

"More like telepathetic," Theo mutters, and in even a situation like this, I have to high-five him for that one.

"_Anyway,_" James says, his brow still furrowed, "We, the Weasley-Potters, all know that that cupboard is the cupboard where you go when you need to get away."

"Well why don't I know about this?" I ask indignantly.

"It's only for the boys," James says, rolling his eyes.

"Oh." Why am I constantly feeling like I know absolutely nothing today?

"I'll go talk to him," Theo says. "You know, if that's okay?"

I nod, "What are you going to say?"

"Everything I'd have wanted to hear."

A part of me feels like it should be me there, holding my little brother and telling him that everything's going to be okay. "Tell him I love him and I'll come and find him later," I tell Theo.

"Sure, Rose," he gives a quick hug and a reassuring smile.

Before either he or James can say another word, I find myself turning and running back down the corridor. I slip out of the castle through a side exit that Al and I discovered in second year.

The night air is crisp and blissfully silent. My trainers are almost completely drenched with dew the second I wander through the long grass so I do the logical thing and pull them off, continuing barefoot down the hill to the lake, which glistens like a silver oasis.

I have made some very stupid decisions in my life, but stripping down to my underwear and going for a dip in the lake in early winter is definitely up there with the stupidest. After, you know, encouraging my brother to fall out of a tree-house, of course.

I stand at the edge of the lake, the cold water lapping gently at my toes. Goosebumps cover my bare arms and legs and I shiver slightly as the cool night breeze whips around me. I enter the lake slowly, one tentative step at a time. The cold water stings my skin like pins and needles but the sheer coldness of it is unusually calming. The only sounds that penetrate the icy night air are the far-off hoots of owls and my own ragged breathing that leaves white swirls of mist.

I'm pretty sure I must have been dropped on my head as a baby. That's the only explanation for my certain insanity. Really, what kind of mentally sound person does this?

I'm up to my hips now, the frosty water causing my underpants to stick to me.

I bet it was Dad who dropped me, honest to Merlin, that man can save a goal in Quidditch easy-peasy but you ask him to unload the dishwasher and he'll drop three glasses and two bowls. Yes, we have a muggle dishwasher, Mum says they're so much more practical than washing each plate by magic.

The water is now gently lapping against my chest now and the bottom half of my body is fully numb; my skin has turned wholly white with cold and I can see my legs gleaming brightly through the green tinged water.

Talking of Mum, what the hell was she smoking while she was pregnant with me? It's all my parents fault that I'm so messed up. Totally not anything to do with me.

Whoever would have thought that the best way to clear your (slightly crazy) head would be to submerge yourself in icy water and risking giving yourself hypothermia? Apparently it is though, looking up at the half moon and the constellations of bright stars that sparkle in complete clarity on this cloudless night, everything seems to fall right into place.

I'm contemplating staying here in the lake forever, sure my legs may fall off but then I'm one step closer to being a mermaid so who's the real winner? I'm laughing at my own astounding wit when another voice cuts through the silent night.

"Weasley?" I try to spin round in the water too quickly and my feet get entangled in whatever magical plant Longbottom is currently cultivating here and my whole body falls down into the water with a huge splash.

Smooth, Rose.

Right as I'm trying to work out which of these plants feels (I don't want to open my eyes in this water) most like Gillyweed, I finally manage to pull the slippery weeds off my feet and rise to the surface. I gasp for breath in the way that I imagine a seal would if it suddenly realised that it, in fact, couldn't breathe underwater. Wait- can seals breathe underwater or are they like dolphins? That's the thing about going to magic-school; you're all hunky-dory changing a kitten into a teapot but as soon as someone wants to know which aquatic animals are mammals, you're screwed.

Definitely need to have a sharp conversation with my mother about these side effects of pre-natal drug use.

I turn around to find Malfoy shaking his head and laughing at me from the shore.

"Look away!" I shout to him, staying ducked down in the water to avoid showing my bra.

"Jesus, Weasley, were you skinny dipping?" he laughs again but obliges and turns to face the castle.

"Eh, not quite," I call back and quickly wade as fast as I can back to the shore, scanning it for wherever I dumped my clothes.

"Do you even have clothes with you?" Malfoy asks and I detect a certain snigger in his voice.

"Somewhere," I reply though I'm starting to panic, bloody clothes can't just get up and walk away by themselves.

"Are you alright, Weasley?"

"Absolutely spiffing."

"Right."

"Eh, Malfoy?" I say finally. "I appear to have lost them."

Malfoy laughs like a maniac at my misfortune for a solid minute while I stand, shivering. What a charming boy. Eventually he takes off his Slytherin robes and throws them over his shoulder to me. I catch them and slip them gratefully on.

"Thanks," I say and he takes this as a sign that he can face me again.

The robes only come up to halfway up my thighs and I immediately blush as Malfoy takes in my appearance. Why am I blushing? This is Malfoy we're talking about right now.

"Why are your robes so short," I grumble. "I feel like one of those scarlet women."

Malfoy laughs again, "You're mental, Weasley. Like full on danger to society crazy."

"What makes you say that?" I ask innocently.

"Oh I don't know, it relatively frequently that I find girls skinny-dipping and cackling to themselves at ten o'clock in October. Completely casual," he laughs and shakes his head disbelievingly at me again.

"Blame my mother and her horrible drug habit," I deadpan. "Anyway, I guess I'll bring your robes to you sometime tomorrow."

"Why not just give them back to me in potions?" he grins back.

I hit him. "Because I'd rather not give the entire student body the impression that we're sleeping together."

"You managed to hurt me inside and out, Weasley."

I roll my eyes, "Mission accomplished. See you around, Malfoy."

"Right, see you around, Weasley."

Ignoring whatever emotion that was I just heard in Malfoy's voice, I turn to head back up to the castle when suddenly I feel a heavy raindrop hit my arm. It's one of those storms where it takes less than five seconds for the rain to be hammering down. I know I'll never make it back up to the castle without getting fully drenched and possibly slipping over a few times, steep slopes and wet mud make for bad outcomes, and I resolve myself to turning back to Malfoy.

"Shrieking shack?" he says and I nod. We run round the lake to the Whomping Willow where Malfoy hastily prods the knot on the thick trunk and we hurry in from the rain. We slide down the tunnel, Malfoy goes first and I follow. We used to always come here for birthdays and the like, now we tend to use either the common rooms or the room of requirement; the initial novelty of the Shack has worn off, a lot. At the end of the slide, Malfoy hasn't moved quickly enough and, try as I might, I don't manage to stop myself from falling directly on top of him.

"Shit, sorry," I say and I start to crawl off him desperately trying to avoid the entire crotch area. In my haste the robes come apart at the front, leaving me on top of Malfoy with the front of my body completely exposed.

Well this is one to tell the grandchildren.

"Damn, Weasley," Malfoy says raising an eyebrow. I smack him again, partly for looking and partly for the eyebrow raise. "I didn't know you were into that kind of thing," he laughs again. "What's our codeword to stop?"

"Ew, Malfoy, stop," I splutter finally rolling off him. "You're vile, you know that?"

He just laughs again. We're both still lying on the ground of the Shack and looking up back through the tunnel; the night sky is still clearly visible. We lie in silence for a few minutes, listening to the steady rain, which shows no sign of easing up. Through the stench of must and rotting wood, which lingers permanently in the Shrieking Shack, I can smell Malfoy on both the robes I'm wearing and the scent being emanated from him. It's like vanilla but not the type you'd buy as a scent. He smells like an empty tub of vanilla ice cream in the best possible way.

"Weasley?" he says softly.

"Mm?"

"I'm hardly going to deny that I saw what happened earlier, with your brother. Are you alright?"

"I told you, I'm spiffing."

"Alright."

"Malfoy?"

"Mm?"

"How did you know that was my brother?"

He laughs softly, the kind of laugh where there's not actually a sound; the one where you just breathe more air out than usual.

"You're part of the Weasley clan, everyone knows who's who in the Weasley clan."

"Alright."

"The stars are pretty tonight."

"Mm."

"You know, I always find that looking at the stars always makes me feel better. There's over a hundred billion stars in the Milky Way, there's over a hundred and twenty five galaxies. Yet here we are."

"That doesn't really make my problems any smaller."

"It wasn't supposed to, it just adds a bit of perspective."

I see him roll over onto his side to face me out of the corner of my eye but I don't do the same. I keep my eyes fixed on a few of the stars.

"You think you know things about who you are and who other people are. In reality we're all just chemicals and compounds with the ability to feel pain too strongly."

"You know lots of things, Rose."

I let out a single laugh. "I don't even know my own brother."

"Everyone has their secrets."

I can feel his warm breath on the side of my face and I suddenly become aware of how close together we are. I'm not sure why, he's _Malfoy_ so why am I not moving further away. I see Hugo again in my mind when he was little, his body got broken, now that he's older, it's his heart being broken. Maybe that's the thing about growing up, you realise that the worst kind of breaks are the ones you can't actually see.

"It's funny how day by day it feels like nothing changes but when you look back, everything feels different."

"Days adapt: adaption over time leads to change."

"I keep trying to please people and making people proud and all I get is shit thrown back in my face."

"I know how you feel, Rose."

For a second I take my eyes off the stars I can see and look at Malfoy. His dark grey eyes meet my blue ones and in an impossibly short yet terribly long time period, the air chokes in the back of my throat but then he blinks.

"The rain stopped," he says, sitting up.

"I didn't notice," I reply.

"I should go."

"I need to find Hugo."

"I need to go to sleep."

"Thank you for, you know…"

"Giving you my robes?"

"Something like that," I breathe watching Malfoy climb back up out of the tunnel.

I go back to my dormitory and slip off Malfoy's robes catching one last whiff of vanilla as I shove them into a plastic bag to give to him tomorrow. Cara and Tori tell me that the last they knew, Hugo was in an empty charms classroom with James and Theo.

I hurry to the charms corridor, mentally planning what I'm going to say to him but when I see him there, in a dark classroom sitting against the wall with his head in his hands all I want to do is hug him.

"Hugh," I say as I run to him. I throw my arms around him and hold him tightly as I feel him begin to shake in my arms.

"I'm sorry, Rosie," he says, his voice cracking slightly.

"Shut up, you idiot," I smile, suppressing a sob that rises to my throat. I'm stupid. "No matter what you have or haven't told me, no matter who you want to shag you're my baby brother and I love you so much alright?"

"Alright."

* * *

A/N: Hey guys, so this took me so much longer to write than the others, I really wanted to do it (Hugo) justice but I really hope that you like it, I'd love to know what you think

-Alice x


	4. Four: No One Forgets Rose Weasley

I've only been drunk four times and all of those times have been at the fault of James Potter. The first time was at his fifteenth birthday just before the start of my fourth year. Long story short, Al and I ended up passed out in the Potter's basement and Tori, Cara and James took the opportunity to draw choice parts of the male anatomy on our faces. Having been discovered by Aunt Ginny the next morning, we both vowed we would never drink again. Yet that very same Christmas, a heated game of Never Have I Ever at the Slytherin after-ball party led to most of the upper school nursing throbbing heads the next morning. The third time was at James' post-exams party in the Room of Requirement. I would tell you what happened, but in all honesty, I can't remember a moment of it. The most recent time of my intoxication was at the start of this year when Cara came into our room in floods of tears claiming that she was never ever going out with another boy again. We spent the night drowning our sorrows in firewhiskey and cookie dough ice cream, which is always a lethal combination.

That one was James' fault for announcing to Cara that he "really couldn't be arsed" to go out with her anymore. Needless to say that I hexed him _and _wrote to his mother.

So when I wake up with a pounding headache and sore limbs, the first conclusion my half-conscious mind jumps to, is that this is definitely a 'morning after the night before' affair.

"What happened last night?" I groan, pulling the curtains of my four-poster back. I immediately regret this as a stream of light that's far too bright to be real blinds me. I fall back into my bed clutching at my eyes.

"Is it alive?"

"Should we poke it?"

"I'll do it."

Before I can fight off my intruder, there is a slim teenage girl on top of me poking my stomach repeatedly. I flail my legs wildly in the air until I make contact with something that feels victoriously like a chin.

"Stupid bitch," Tori moans as she climbs back off my bed.

"Don't mess with Rose Weasley in the mornings," I growl and clamber out of my bed. "Especially not when I feel like fricking Shrek."

"Don't be hard on yourself, Rosie. You look far more like ogre-Fiona," Cara laughs and I hit her over the head with my pillow.

"I feel like I was run over by a bus," I say.

Tori raises her eyebrows at Cara and mouths, "I told you she did it."

"What?"

"We know what you did last night!" Cara squeals.

"What did I do last night?"

Tori punches me on the arm, "Don't play dumb, Rosie. Some third year Hufflepuffs _saw _you and Malfoy coming back up to the castle last night. _You and Malfoy did it._"

Seriously, why does Tori know everyone in this school's gossip.

"And apparently you were wearing his robes! So romantic," Cara beams.

"No. No. No," I tell them. "You two are way out, you couldn't be more wrong."

"Too defensive," Tori says and Cara nods.

"I hate you both," I say as I head to the bathroom. I may have not drank any alcohol last night but clearly lying on a stone floor for the best part of an hour and contemplating the universe does bad things to my body the next morning.

"You do realise you missed breakfast, right? We have lessons in ten minutes," Cara says.

I hate my life.

"Shit- I need to go and do something," I mumble as I pull on my uniform and robes. "I'll see you guys at break."

"She's going to give Malfoy a morning BJ," Tori calls after me while I grab the plastic bag of robes hurry from the dorm.

"Fuck you," I shout back.

The worst thing is she's nearly right. I mean I'm obviously not going to, you know, suck Malfoy's… you know. But I am going to give him his robes back before class. I feel like I'm disposing of the evidence for some heinous crime.

Actually that's exactly what I'm doing.

By the time I've reached the dungeons, I still don't have any idea what my excuse for bringing him a bag of robes is going to be. He's bound to be with Al or some of the other Slytherin sixth years and right now the last thing I need is more gossip going around about my family. On my way here, I've already been asked if I'm okay three times, what's going on with my brother four times and how many times Hugo's taken it in the arse once.

I sent a stinging hex James' way for that question.

Just when I'm contemplating leaving the robes outside the Slytherin common room with a note that says, "Here's the body." I'm nearly knocked down by two boys who run out of the stone wall throwing a Quaffle between them. One of them runs straight into me forcing me to back right up against the cold wall.

"Shit, sorry," he says. "Wait, Weasley?"

"Top of the morning to you too, Malfoy," I say, pushing him away from me, disgruntled. Al just stands there laughing.

"I need to get out to greenhouses, Scorp," he laughs and then winks at Malfoy who sneers back at him.

"Here," I tell him thrusting the bag at him.

I turn to leave but he catches my arm, "We need to talk."

I stare blankly at him.

"About last night. Wait here for one second."

He mutters a password at the wall that appears translucent for a second and allows him to walk through it. I look like such an idiot: the Slytherins seem to take this as an opportunity to get a good look at me, "That's his sister" is the main whisper.

After a particularly obnoxious group of second year girls whisper fiercely about me behind their hands I lose my (rather short) temper, "Why don't you just take a fucking picture, it'll last longer!"

"Alright, Weasley?" Malfoy laughs, reappearing minus the bag.

"I swear to god I'm going to curse the next person who even looks at me."

"Charming."

"You're not excluded from that, Malfoy," I warn.

"People will have something new to talk about by lunchtime."

I snort disbelievingly, "Yeah they'll probably be onto our love affair by then."

"You heard about that rumour then?" he asks as we begin to make our way up to the Arithmancy classrooms.

"Tori and Cara told me this morning."

"No. No. No."

"My sentiments exactly."

"Nothing did happen last night, did it?"

I come to a halt, perplexed, in the corridor. "What do you mean?"

"The thing is, I, eh, you know…"

"Spit it out, Malfoy."

"I don't actually remember anything that happened after about six o'clock last night."

"Alright?" It's definitely not alright.

"Al and I may have taken some potions last night, just to blow off some steam. Apparently I didn't look quite right. You don't know what happened do you?"

I feel suddenly sick. "Haven't a clue."

"Oh, alright."

"Those were your robes, I borrowed them last night."

"I guessed, why though?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Did I do something wrong, Weasley?" he asks his brow furrowed in confusion.

"Nothing more than usual, Malfoy."

I spend most of Arithmancy glaring at the back of Malfoy's head. How could he forget what he said to me? More importantly how could he forget what I told him? No one forgets what Rose Weasley tells them. I suppose I should be glad, we can both just move on like nothing happened.

_Nothing happened._

We didn't cuddle, we didn't kiss, we barely even talked.

"Exactly who did Malfoy kill?" Meredith Ainslee whispers to me. She's in Ravenclaw, but since we're the only two girls who take both Arithmancy and Ancient Runes, we've gotten pretty close.

"No one, but give it a week and I'll probably have killed him," I mutter back and she laughs softly. That's the thing about Meredith she wouldn't hurt a fly. Every movement she makes is soft; she always wears dresses that swish around her ankles and when she walks, it's more like gliding. Basically she's the personification of the word delicate. To be perfectly honest, I'm surprised that we're friends too.

"Rose, you're so funny," she giggles nudging my arm gently.

She thinks I'm joking.

"Is Hugo okay by the way? I didn't really see what happened but you know," she trails off, her blue eyes are wide with concern.

I shrug slightly, "He'll be okay."

"I'm glad," she smiles.

"Miss Ainslee, Miss Weasley, am I interrupting something?" Professor Mensio suddenly barks at us causing my heart to pretty much leap out of chest and tap dance down the corridor.

"Sorry, Sir. Rose was just explaining something to me," Meredith smiles. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why you befriend Ravenclaws who everyone loves. I nod in agreement and Mensio continues to explain the different uses of the number seven when predicting the genders of babies. Remind me why I take this subject again.

Malfoy turns round and sniggers at me, I glare back with stony eyes.

* * *

"Right, Rose Weasley. We want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth."

"And we'll be able to tell when you're lying."

"Hey guys, if the whole school thing doesn't work out you could definitely get jobs as ministry thugs, I'll put in a good word with Uncle Harry if you want."

"Don't you sass us, Rose."

Tori and Cara have cornered me in the Gryffindor Common room and Tori is now cracking her knuckles menacingly and Cara is pulling her 'threatening' face which really just makes her look constipated.

"I wasn't sassing," I laugh which earns me a light punch from Tori.

"We're supposed to be your friends and you haven't even told us what happened last night," Cara whines and Tori sighs exasperatedly.

"Well you've ruined the menacing thing we had going on now, Cara," Tori says. "_But _we do want to know what happened."

"Nothing happened, I promise," I say earnestly but for the look they give me, I may as well have just told them that I had sex with the lead singer of The Peace Eaters (our all time favourite band).

"She's lying," Tori says. "Every time you lie, we're going to tell James one of your secrets."

"Starting with the fact that you used to have a crush on your Uncle Harry," Cara laughs.

They wouldn't.

"Oh you best believe we would," Tori growls, reading my face.

"I hate you guys."

"Oh we know," Cara grins.

"Also, just for the record, I was five years old when I had that crush."

"_He's your uncle."_

They get it out of me eventually, of course. I end up telling them everything, only omitting the part where I fall on top of Malfoy. It would be too painful to even contemplate saying that sentence out loud. When I mention that Malfoy can't remember anything, their reactions pretty much match mine.

"What?" Tori says indignantly. "How dare he forget that?"

"That's what I said."

"Maybe he's just pretending to forget?" Cara offers.

"Why the heck would he do that?" I ask.

She shrugs, "Boys are a complicated species." I can't help but watch her light green eyes flicker over to where James and Ed Roden are seeing who's spit wad can travel the furthest on the other side of the common room.

"So now," Tori says. "Half the school thinks you and Malfoy fucked in the Shrieking Shack, you didn't and he can't remember any of this?"

"The tragedy that is my life."

* * *

The next few weeks pass very uneventfully. The rumours about Malfoy and I die out pretty quickly and new infernal stories take their place (I'm pretty sure the one about Hope Stanley and Dan Nott getting caught shagging in the kitchens is true though). Hugo remains the centre of attention for a little longer, we start telling anyone who asks that he's got a record deal and is moving Brazil for the start of his first headline tour. That shuts people up pretty quickly. Malfoy and I have kept our contact on a strictly mandrake orientated level; whether it's my stubbornness or his general obliviousness that keeps it that way I'm not sure. I have to keep reminding myself that it's Malfoy: the boy who I've hated since I was eleven. And yet here he is in my thoughts.

It's Friday the thirtieth, the morning before Halloween in other words and so in 'James Potter Land' the ideal time to start planning a costume party.

"Rosell-Posell?" James says in his 'I need something from Rose' voice.

I roll my eyes, "What now, James?"

"Eh excuse me, Miss Weasley. That's no way to address your seniors," he smirks.

"Ah yes, I'm sure those two weeks have made the world of difference."

"You bet they did." He sits down next to me and slips his arm around my shoulders like some corny high-schooler from 1950s America.

"What do you want?"

"What makes you think I want something?"

"So you don't want anything?"

"I didn't say that," he grins. "I need you to help me plan a Halloween party."

That's James for you, no 'please', no 'you know how much I love you, Rosie'.

"By 'help' do you mean do it for you?"

"Maybe."

James is spared my lecture by my owl, Snoop, dropping a letter onto my breakfast and then nipping my ear when he sees that I have nothing appetising to offer him. I open the letter and groan, Mum has her angry handwriting going on. I'm in trouble.

_'Rose,_

_Hello yes, I'm still alive. Thought you might have forgotten about me considering you haven't written in three weeks. I know you're busy and you're probably angry with me for what happened in Flitwick's office but I don't hate you and so I'm going to be the bigger person (metaphorically, of course- you're a giant). How's school? But more importantly how are you? How's Quidditch? How are Tori and Cara? And the rest of the clan in general? _

_We're all cheery here, except your father and Uncle Harry are going on a 'boy's weekend' to visit Uncle Charlie in Romania so the results of that should be both amusing and terrifying in equal amounts._

_Don't be a stranger, Rose. Your old mum relies on your letters to keep me young. Besides, even Hugo is writing more than you right now and it's things like that that upset the balance of the universe. _

_Sending you all my love,_

_Mum x'_

"Charlie's going to give our dads alcohol poisoning isn't he?" laughs James who read the letter of my shoulder.

"'Fraid so Jamsie," I say as I grab my quill and some parchment and hastily scribble out a reply. Despite how Mum may appear, she's a huge softie at heart. And she loves America's Next Top Model, bet there's something you didn't know about Hermione Weasley.

_'Mumzie,_

_I'm so sorry that I haven't been writing, you wouldn't believe the amount of drama that goes down here.'_

She probably thinks I'm joking. Ha. Haha.

_'Oh I am having so much fun in these detentions you have no idea, Malfoy and I have decided that we're dropping out of Hogwarts ASAP to become Longbottom's gardening minions. Hope you'll be proud of my decision! Um excuse me, I am not a giant- it's not my fault that a) you're a rather short one and b) you married humanity's answer to giants. (Or I guess that may be Hagrid hmm…) And don't worry about school, I'm doing all my homework on time. As for me as a person, I'm eating all my green vegetables and I'm getting at least 7 hours of sleep a night. Quidditch is going well apart from the fact that my cousin is an actual dictator Tori and Cara are the epitome of everything you would ever want for your daughter's best friends. They definitely did not slip me a love potion the other week that made me think Professor Flitwick was the cutest man on this planet- don't worry nothing happened, I'm not expelled. The clan's all cool apart from James who's being mean to me a lot so if you could maybe mention it to Aunt Ginny it would be much appreciated.' _

James, who's also reading my response over my shoulder punches me on the arm.

_'Please make sure that Uncle Charlie doesn't get them killed because I have intricately planned my wedding and it would be highly inconvenient to have to reorganise everything._

_Sorry that I can't do more to keep all those grey hairs out of your head, hopefully you'll find a potion strong enough soon. Uh-oh I feel the earth shaking, comets begin to plummet from the sky everywhere children, men and women alike are screaming: Hugo 'too-cool-for-school' Weasley is writing to you more than me. I've failed you. Hopefully you can find it in your heart to forgive a silly little kiddo like me?_

_Returning your love with a hug and a kiss,_

_Rose x_

_P.S- You are so lucky that you were pre-occupied with all the slaying Voldemort stuff when you were at school otherwise annoying cousins may have made you plan parties for them with one day's notice._

_P.P.S- That cousin is James, Molly hasn't suddenly decided to go off the rails._

_P.P.P.S- Imagine Uncle Percy's face if Molly came home all pierced and tatted.'_

"You're mental, Rosie-Posie," James laughs, shaking his head.

"I wouldn't be too rude to me, Potter. My party planning services have a limited temper," I say.

"You'll do it?"

"Course I will, your charm wins me over every time."

"Well I am rather charming."

A/N: Slightly shorter chapter than the others but the next one will be a little longer and a lot more dramatic :) The bits in italics are the letters- just thought I'd clarify just in case. Oh and the other thing I wanted to clear up was that Scorpius _hadn't_ taken the potion when he was with Rose. Yes, I refer to him as Scorpius even if Rose refuses to. Hope you liked the update and please let me know what you think x  
-Alice x


	5. Five: I'm Not Drunk!

By the time third period Ancient Runes rolls around, I have most of the basic details for the party worked out. This is James' thing; he loves to throw parties but he hates hard work. I, on the other hand, like to know what's happening, when it's happening and how it's happening. As so eloquently put by most of my friends/cousins/gang I'm a slight 'control freak' but really I prefer the term organised. I guess that's my thing.

Meredith and I are going through a list that I made of everything that needs to be done and sorted for the party (see- organised). The location is obvious, the Room of Requirement; it makes decorating and making sure we have everything we need so much easier.

"I really don't think we need too much food. I mean, everyone will be coming straight from the feast, right?" Meredith whispers.

"That's true," I mutter back, crossing food off the list. That girl is always right, always. We're sitting in our usual position at the back of the classroom which is handily located right next to the window that looks out over the Quidditch grounds. Watching the Hufflepuff team practice during their free periods is hardly difficult. "We'll need sweets, though."

We've decided on a 'Halloween Throwback' theme for the party, complete with dressing up as your favourite super-hero or Quidditch player, trick or treating and apple bobbing.

"I can do that," Meredith whispers. "My brother's working at Honeydukes at the moment, I'll owl him and have him send some Firewhiskey jellies and stuff down."

"You're an angel, Mere," I tell her and she laughs softly.

"Maybe some olives too?"

"Olives?"

"They're my favourite."

"Olives it is then."

The perks of planning the party.

"James will sort out the drinks, I guess?" she asks, addressing the next item on the list.

"Yeah, he and Ed are sneaking out to the Hog's Head tomorrow morning."

"That just leaves the guest list then, has James given you a list or anything?"

I snort, "James doesn't do anything for these parties. I guess we'll just make up our own."

"Why don't we just invite everyone from fourth year onwards?"

I nod, "Except maybe we don't invite all of Slytherin; they don't get on as well with everyone."

Meredith doesn't buy it, "Just because you're angry with Scorpius doesn't mean we can just exclude him."

"This isn't anything to do with Malfoy, I've completely forgotten about him." Yes, I'm lying. Yes, Meredith knows I'm lying. No, I won't stop lying.

"Rose, drop it. I don't blame you or anything but when you spend every lesson you have with him giving him one of your death glares, it's not that hard to notice."

"I do not give him 'death glares'," I protest.

"Oh, come off it! If looks could kill, Scorpius would be stone-cold six feet under by now," she laughs. "Let's just say everyone can come, alright?"

"Alright," I say. "But I think you need to be re-sorted into bloody Hufflepuff…"

"You need to be re-sorted into Slytherin- for Merlin's sake Rose, I take it back! Now stop hitting me."

"You're sure everything's ready to go tomorrow?" James asks me later that night in the common room.

I nod, "Sure, we just need the drinks from you and Meredith's brother is sending sweets up from Honeydukes tomorrow."

"I could kiss you, Rosie-Posie."

"Please don't."

"You sure you don't want a kiss from your favourite cousin?" he laughs, tackling me onto an armchair and making kissing noises at me.

"This is pretty much incest, Jay," I squeal.

"Uh, why was I born into a family of freaks?" A voice interrupts our chair-wrestling. We look up to find Lily standing above us, looking thoroughly pissed off.

"You alright, Lils?" James asks, pushing me off him.

"I'm fine," she says looking less 'fine' than ever.

"Meet me in my dorm in five minutes," I tell her and she looks slightly relieved."James, for the party you just need to let all the Hufflepuffs and Slytherins know the details."

"I'll get Lucy to spread it round Hufflepuff," Erin, who's been sitting doing homework near the fire, says.

"Thanks, Erin," I smile. Sometimes I feel bad that she's so much closer to my cousin than I am. Although Lucy is in the same year as Al and I, we have never really been too friendly. It's not that anything is wrong with her, but we didn't really see each other that much as children and when we were sorted into different houses at Hogwarts, the bond was just never formed. There's also the fact that Lucy is the unexpected hipster of the Weasley family- you should have seen Uncle Percy's face when she came back from school last summer with pink hair. However, Erin and her instantly clicked, they probably bonded over vegan coffee or some unsigned band.

"Al can tell his Slytherin buds," James says. Then, almost as an afterthought, he murmurs, "Make sure Lily's alright, will you?"

"Of course," I promise.

When I was younger, the one thing I wanted more than anything in this world was a little sister, then my parents brought home Hugo and I asked if we could send him back and swap him for a girl instead. Obviously, they told me that it didn't work like that which my three year old brain thought was absolutely ridiculous. However, when Aunt Ginny and Uncle Harry showed Lily to me for the first time, I reckoned that this was my chance to have a little sister, even if she wasn't technically my sister. Since Lily was tiny, we've agreed to adopt each other as sisters, I'm one of the first people that she tells my problems to and she's the same for me.

"Right, what's up, Lilzer?" I ask, plopping down on my bed next to Lily.

"I hate my life," she says blankly. Now, don't get me wrong, I love Lily more than I love the majority of people on this planet, but she does, like me, have the tendency to exaggerate.

"Alright," I say, "Why exactly?"

"Uh," she groans and lies back dramatically on my bed, "Nothing makes sense, Rose. I think the universe hates me."

"Well you know what they say," I recline so I'm facing her, "Fate's a whore, she screws everyone in the end."

The corners of her mouth flick upwards in a half-smile, "I'm clearly her favourite fuck-buddy."

"Lily Luna Potter!" I gasp. "You shouldn't know what a fuck-buddy is."

She rolls her eyes, "You sound like my mother, Rose. Or your mother."

"So I've been told. Anyway," I press, "Why are being such a sad Sally?"

"That's not an expression, Rose." I poke her. "Ow, alright. I'mdeeplyinloveandhedoesn'tevenknowIexistandapparentlyhelikessomeotherbitchanyway."

"Nope, didn't get any of that."

She grimaces and takes a deep breath, "I'm in love, Rose. And he'll never like me and so I'll die alone with ten cats and Mum and Dad will stop putting my name on the Christmas cards because they're so embarrassed."

And people say I'm melodramatic.

"Alrighty, so who is this Chandler to your Monica? The Brad to your Angelina? The Katniss to your Peeta?"

"Rose, you're mental."

"I'm aware of that."

"You're going to laugh."

"Probably."

She pokes me.

"Sorry."

"It's Scorpius."

I don't say anything.

"Rose?"

"Sorry I think I might be dreaming."

She pinches me, "You're not dreaming. But you see my dilemma?"

"Well I see that I may not be the only one who isn't mentally sound."

"Why?"

"You're claiming to be in love with Malfoy! Malfoy."

"Why do you hate him so much?"

"You're asking me why I hate Malfoy?"

"Wow, Rose. I thought you were supposed to be intelligent."

"I am intelligent, which is why I hate Malfoy."

"That's not a valid reason," she says, I can hear in her voice that she's getting annoyed with me.

"He's just not been great to me in the past," I say simply.

"How so?" she questions and I don't know what to say. I've managed to avoid letting the fact that Malfoy and I lay and talked about the stars and the universe slip so far and I don't plan to change that.

"I don't want to talk about it," I shrug and she looks concerned.

"You've never, you know, been with him have you, Rose?"

"What?" I splutter. "Nope, I can promise you that, Lil."

"Oh, alright. Good."

"Good?"

"Well it would be awkward wouldn't it?"

"Would it?"

"Yes."

"Well we have never nor will we ever," I tell her. I'm glad I didn't have to lie to her, it wouldn't feel right. "So, why is your love for… him, making you regret your existence?"

"Because," she says in a voice you would use if you were addressing a particularly dim flobberworm, "He's hot, older, intelligent and according to Hailey Kent, he likes some other girl."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"Well," I say, "You're very pretty, Lils-"

"But he's like a sex-god, Rose! Have you seen his arse?" she shrieks. Oh the tragedy that is the mind of a horny fifteen year old.

I snort, "He's not that cute."

"What?" she squeals and then hits me around the head. "You may not like him but you can't deny he's dreamy."

"I don't know, I'm just not a big fan of guys who dye their hair blonde," I say.

"That's not dyed, Rose! It's all natural."

"Oh."

"But he's two years older than me!" she wails. "Uh I bet he doesn't even know I exist!"

"I'm pretty sure he does, Lil," I say. "He spends half the holidays at your house."

"And then," she continues, like I haven't said anything, "There's that other girl he likes."

"That's obviously just a rumour."

"But he hasn't gone out with anyone in a year, though. A whole year!"

How tragic.

"He probably just hasn't found the right girl?" I shrug. To be perfectly honest, the whole dating/romance/love area is the one where I'm least helpful. Ask me to brew a vial of felix felicis and I'll be able to do it, but ask me how to seduce your crush into bed and I'm about as useful as a pre-pubescent Hippogriff.

"But you could talk to him for me, Rose?" she says excitedly. "I mean, you guys have detention together, right?"

"Actually, no. Detention's off tomorrow, Longbottom is overseeing preparations for the feast."

"Well then… ask him at the party!" she says. When I roll my eyes and grimace back at her she puts on her best puppy-dog face and whimpers, "Please, Rosie?"

"Fine!"

Why is that I can never say no to a Potter.

"Do I look okay?" Tori asks for the fifteenth time as she looks herself up and down in the mirror. Again. "I feel like I don't look good."

"You look great, Tor," Cara says, joining Tori by the mirror and smoothing her hair and skirt. Again. "I, on the other hand, look like shit."

We decided to dress up as cats; it was pretty much so Cara could wear her new lacy black dress and Tori would have an excuse to do winged eyeliner on all of us. I just go along with it because it means that they just lend me their cute clothes which I'm hardly going to say no to. However this is one of the worse times to be friends with two of the most attractive girls Hogwarts has to offer: while they say that they're ugly you have to sit there feeling like a plump pumpkin.

"I knew I shouldn't have eaten so much at the stupid feast," Cara moans turning to the side to check for a food baby. Alas, her stomach remains flat. It's nearly eight-thirty, we told people to be at the Room of Requirement by eight but Tori insisted that we had to arrive at least half an hour late ("We can't get there on time, Rose! Merlin, we'd look so desperate!") So I'd had to go and set up the Room before coming back to our dorm to get ready.

"You both look amazing," I say, I try to sound bright and cheery. Unfortunately those are two adjectives never used to describe Rose Weasley and my impatient exasperation shines sweetly through.

"The finishing touch," Cara cries as she dives into her trunk throwing things aside until she emerges brandishing three jeweled pairs of velvet cat ears. She throws a pair each to Tori and I, I slip mine on around the soft waves that Tori curled my hair into.

"Can we go now? I kind of want to enjoy the party that I spent the last two days stressing over," I say and they both roll their eyes then Tori nods at Cara seriously.

Before I can say, "Get the fuck off me you stupid loons." They've pinned me to my bed and after Cara flicks her wand at me, I find myself completely paralysed.

"Um what the hell?" is all I can manage to say. They both stand on either side of my bed glaring down at me with stony eyes. Are they seriously doing this again? And it looks like they've choreographed every move they're making. Fucking dorks.

"I heard from a third year Ravenclaw boy that a certain Lily Potter approached you requiring your services in wing-manning in order to obtain a certain Scorpius Malfoy," Tori says, still giving me her menacing face.

"Why the hell are you always gossiping with these random people?"

"Shut up, Rose."

"Anyway," Cara takes over, "We don't want you to do this."

"Why?" I ask.

Tori answers in the same serious voice, "Because we are looking out for you and we believe that as your friends it's our duty to inform you-"

"That we totally think you and Malfoy would actually make a really cute couple!" Cara giggles and then blushes slightly.

"Cara! When we've planned our interventions, you can't go off script!" Tori says and punches Cara on the arm across the bed.

"Right, sorry."

I finally recover my voice, "What the actual fuck?"

"Hear us out," Cara says. "Have you ever actually given him a chance?"

"I don't have to give him a chance, he's Malfoy! Everyone except me seems to have forgotten that…"

"Literally, Rose shut up for five minutes," Tori says. "Did you know Malfoy's favourite book is The Book Thief?"

"But that's-"

"Your favourite," Cara finishes. "Or that his favourite film is Les Miserables, also the same as you."

"How do you even know this?" I ask.

"I have my sources," Tori shrugs.

"Basically we've concluded that you're very similar people, and that Malfoy isn't really a bad person."

"Look, I really appreciate you guys trying to matchmake and everything but I'm really not interested, besides Lily would probably decapitate me," I tell them.

They share a quick glance and Cara shrugs. Tori flicks her wand at me again and I feel the feeling surge back into my limbs. "Let's go then," she says coolly.

We walk most of the way to the Room of Requirement in silence; I'm thinking about what they said, but when we're on the corridor approaching Cara nudges me and giggles, "You know, though, Malfoy is pretty hot."

I roll my eyes at her, "Yeah I guess. But I don't know… He's Malfoy! Like it doesn't really matter that he has an arse that looks like it would be very feelable and when I saw him in just a t-shirt let me tell you that it was not an unpleasant sight, he must seriously work out. And I don't even care that he has eyes that are the exact colour of sexy mysteriousness and that you could get lost in them for hours. And I definitely don't care that he has lips that look like they would feel very soft against mine because, well, he's him. Him with the perfectly imperfect hair." It feels like I've suddenly been able to look at him for the first time. "Okay fine I admit it, Malfoy is a fucking sex god!"

"Eh, Rose?"

I spin on the spot and see none other than Scorpius Malfoy standing right there.

Please shoot me in the fucking face right now.

"You, eh, you dropped your tail," he stammers. It's very clear to me, and Cara, Tori and Al, who are all clutching their sides laughing, that he has heard my whole rant.

Merlin, I know I'm hardly a saint, but why you feel the need to punish me this way I'll never know.

"Right, thanks," I say awkwardly, taking the stupid tail from him.

"I'll be going into the party now," he says and darts away from me as quickly as possible.

I collapse to the ground and begin to groan like a dying sloth.

"Well as much as we appreciate the proclamation of love, we weren't really expecting it to happen like this," Tori laughs as her and Cara sit on the corridor floor next to me and begin to stroke my back soothingly.

"I want to die," I whine.

They just laugh and pull me to my feet. "Now you just have to go in there and make him say all that right back to you," Cara tells me, squeezing my hand.

Eight shots of concentrated Firewhiskey and two bowls of stuffed olives later, I'm feeling considerably better. I'm planning to head to the dancefloor and test out the new moves I'm feeling I can ace now I have a few drinks down me when Lily appears out of nowhere.

"Rosie, have you talked to Scorpius for me yet?" she asks and she seems to sway slightly, or maybe I'm swaying, guess we'll never know.

"No, but I don't know whether I can, Lily-willy," I slur and rest my hand on her shoulder in what I see is a comforting thing to do.

"What why? Wait- Rose are you drunk?" she asks, giving me a look that makes her look a lot like Aunt Ginny.

"I'm not drunk!" I protest. "Actually, you know what, Lilioto? Ima gonna go and talk to dear Scorpius right now!"

Before Lily can stop me, I stumble off in search of Malfoy. Or Scorpius as he apparently is now. I'm not sure how long it takes me to find him, but as soon as I start calling out his name in the middle of the Room, he comes pretty quickly.

"Rose?" he says, he's swaying too. Maybe it's a new dance move. I try it, Scorpius grabs me by the shoulders though and looks at me with those big grey eyes.

"Hi," I grin up at him.

"I didn't think you'd want to talk to me for a while."

"Course I want to talk to my favourite non-dyed blonde person!"

"You're so wasted, how much did you fucking drink?" he asks.

"I'm not drunk!" I say again, why does everyone think I'm drunk. "You're drunk!"

"Come on, let's get you out of here," he says and leads me out of the main room to the door leading outside. Somewhere at the back of my mind, I remember putting that door here so that the idiots who got completely hammered would have a place to go and throw up.

Once we're outside, my stomach starts to lurch. "I don't feel so good," I tell Scorpius.

Five minutes later he's cleared up most of the sick from around my face with his wand. I offered to do it but he told me I was too drunk. He's totally wrong.

"Are you alright, Rose?" he asks, still holding me steady. He has quite nice hands.

"I'm very alright. I think I've never been more alright!" I slur brightly. "Can we go back in now? I want to try that new dance move!"

"I think we should just stay out here for a little bit," he says. My face falls and I feel like I'm about to cry. "We can dance out here though." He takes my body in his and begins to step from one foot to the other. He's not a very good dancer.

When I tell him this he laughs and says, "Not like you, you're an excellent dancer, Rose."

"Thank you, Scorpadoodle!" I laugh. Then I suddenly remember why exactly I needed to talk to him in the first place. "WAIT!"

"What is it?" he asks, looking worried. He's very cute when he furrows his brow like that.

"Well, y'know my Lily, cousin- wait no, my cousin, Lily. Lily well she wants you."

"She wants me?"

"No, she likes you!"

"Lily likes me?"

"Like like-like."

"Like-like?"

"LOVE!" I giggle.

"Lily Potter loves me?" he asks.

"Yes!" I shout. He's very slow to catch on.

"And does she know you're telling me this?"

"Yes- well no, but she asked me to talk to you for her!"

"You're very strange when you're drunk, Rose."

"I am not drunk!"

"Anyway, did you want to talk to me for her?"

"Not really, and I said it was because I hate you but really I think I like you."

"You like me?"

"I think so, but you already like someone else. That's what Lily said."

"People know that I like someone?"

"So you do like someone?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Oh, alright," I try not to cry but somehow I don't manage it.

"Shit- are you crying?"

"No," I sob.

"Yes you are!" he laughs. He's laughing at me! I try to hit him but I miss and end up hitting the stone wall which hurts a lot. I cry more and sink to the floor. Standing is too hard.

Scorpius sits down on the floor next to me, "You alright, Rose?"

"I feel rather sad."

"Why?"

"My arm hurts and you like someone else and you heard me say that you have funky eyes and a feelable arse."

He picks up my throbbing arm and kisses it lightly. "It's all better now."

"You still like someone else and I'll never feel your arse."

"You're such an idiot!"

"Rude."

"It's you, Rose.I like you, stupid!"

"Really?"

"Really. Alright?"

"Alright."

"You want to feel my bum, then?"

"Very much so."

He stands up, grabbing my hand and pulling me with him. Then he pulls me close to him and I can smell sweet vanilla and he puts my hands over his arse. Indeed it is truly beautiful to the touch. I think I've found my talent, I can judge bum feelability just by looking at them.

I'm not sure how long we stand there like that, all I know is that the music stops inside after a little while and the noise fades away. Suddenly the door swings open and we jump apart too slowly.

"What the fuck, Rose?" Lily stands in the doorway, fists clenched and visibly shaking with anger. She glares at me for a while and I try to form a sentence but I've suddenly decided to forget how to speak English. Lily turns and slams the door behind her

"Lily, wait," I try to chase after her but I stumble in my haste and fall right into Scorpius' arms.

"Come on, Rose," he says, "Let's get you to bed."

I feel my eyes shutting all by themselves.

All I know is that I'm being carried by him and all I hear is his gentle breaths and his footsteps and all I smell is vanilla. And, for once, I'm perfectly happy to not be in control.

**A/N: Did they actually just admit to liking each other? Was that a real thing? This chapter was interesting to write, we finally got to meet Lily! And drunk Rose, gotta love drunk Rose :) I'd love to know what you think! Thank you for the favourites/reviews so far! Please remember to leave a quick one, I really appreciate them! **

**-Alice x**


End file.
